Lightning- and human-ignited fires have shaped many of Florida's natural communities. Plant persistence in these habitats requires adaptation to survive high temperatures, ability to respond to aboveground tissue loss, or avoidance of these conditions through survival in unburned patches or in the soil seed bank. Limited distribution of many rare species in increasingly fragmented habitats and uncertainty of whether rare species tolerate, require, or persist through avoidance of fire hampers fire management when it is possible and threatens long-term viability of plants. We review up to 14 years of monitoring data for 18 rare plant species from 14 families occurring on sandhill, scrub, pine rockland, and mixed deciduous hardwood communities across Florida. For a number of variables measured, including density, frequency, flowering, and recruitment, 50% of the species showed significant positive responses to burning and 50% of the species showed a neutral or no response. None of the species were unable to recover post-burn. These results suggest that prescribed fire in these pyrogenic habitats need not be delayed until species-specific responses to fire are understood.
fire
Florida
Florida scrub
pine rocklands
pyrogenic
Sandhill
